Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. effeminate.

1652		Gaule Hagastrom 186: Baker-kneed signifies effeminate [F&H].
1937–84		Partridge DSUE (1984) 42/1: C.17–18.

2. (also bakerly-kneed) knock-kneed; thus baker knees/legs n.

1593		Passionate Morrice (1876) 820: They that trode right, were either clouterly caulfed, tree like set, spindle shankte, or bakerly kneed.
1607		Dekker & Webster Westward Hoe II ii: Will womens tongues (like Bakers legs) neuer go straight?
1611		R. Cotgrave Dict. of Fr. and Eng. Tongues n.p.: Iarretier... Baker-legd, that goes in at the knees.
c.1637		R. Brome Damoiselle V i: To hide the defects thereof [...] As likely / The Baker-knees, or some strange shamble shanks.
1656		Mennis & Smith et al. ‘In Praise of his Mistresses Beauty’ Wit and Drollery 28: With speckled Thighs, scab’d and scarce found; Her Knees like Bakers are.
1659		Greene & Lodge Lady Alimony V v: You would wish that his puny Baker-legs had more Essex; growth in them; for else they would make ill Butchers ware.
1669		R. L’Estrange Fables of Aesop (1926) 1: Aesop [was] Flat-nos’d, Hunch-Back’d, Blabber-Lipp’d; [...] Big-Belly’d, Baker-Legg’d.
[1678		J. Ray Proverbs (2nd edn) 91: He should be a baker by’s bow-legs].
1706		J. Floyer Essay to Prove Cold Bathing (2nd edn) II 153: Hence crooked Backs, backle Hams, Baker knees, etc.
1754		B. Martin Eng. Dict. (2nd edn) n.p.: Baker-legg’d, straddling, with legs bowing outwards.
1785		Comical Hist. of Simple John 2: Girzy the eldest had a hump back, a high breast, baker legs.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Baker-kneed, an In kneed man, one whose knees knock togther in walking.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: Baker-knee’d. One whose knees knock together in walking, as if kneading dough.
1812		G. Colman Yngr ‘Low Ambition’ Poetical Vagaries 12: His voice had broken to a gruffish squeak; He had grown blear-eyed, baker-kneed, and gummy.
1818		Chester Chron. 18 Dec. 4: You know now that I am a little what is vulgarly called baker-kneed.
1821		R. Waln Hermit in America on Visit to Phila. 2nd series 28: She was [...] eel-shaped—baker-kneed—mammoth-ankled—and club-footed!!
1823		[C.M. Westmacott] Mammon in London 1 225: [B]akers’ legs [...] such as, from the knee downwards, resemble nothing so much as a pair of outstretched compasses.
1831		Drogheda Jrnl (Ireland) 2 July 4/1: Miss Marlin is terribly baker-kneed.
1837		Morn. Post (London) 4 Aug. 3/4: He is moreover made to appear what is vernacularly termed ‘baker-kneed’.
1843		Bell’s Life in London 24 Dec. 4/1: He was what some caled ‘baker-kneed’.
1850		Bell's Life in London 21 July 7/3: That candidate [...] being most unmistakenly ‘baker-kneed’.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 15 58/2: [T]hough he were blear-eyed, baker-legged, or tut-mouthed.
1871		Figure Training 39: Baker’s knee, as it is called, or an inclining inward of the right knee-joint until it closely resembles the right side of a letter K, is the almost certain penalty of bearing any burden of bulk in the right hand [F&H].
1889		Aberdeen Eve. Exp. 15 June 2/6: The bookseller, who he depicts [...] as ‘very tall, thin, ungainly, white-faced, splay-footed and baker-kneed’.
1910		in F. Munby Romance of Book Selling 214: He was splay-footed and baker- kneed — whatever baker-kneed may be.
1914		Sports Argus (UK) 12 Sept. 1/3: There, ye [...] pigeon-chester, pigeon-hearted, baker-kneed [...] go to war!